Why I Believe Paul Wasn’t Prohibiting Women from Teaching or Exercising Authority in the Church

A Brief Overview of Paul’s Language and Context in 1st Timothy:

In a brilliant doctoral thesis, Courtney Jade Friesen demonstrates that much of the language found in the Greek Septuagint Bible can also be found in Euripides’ tragic plays.  These Greek tragedies were popular at the time the Septuagint was written.  In particular, Friesen highlights that ritual violence in a religious context is represented by the same language in both sources (Friesen 2013). In the Septuagint, we find that parents who sacrifice their offspring to the gods and goddesses of Canaan are referred to as “authentas” (Wisdom of Solomon 12:6). In Euripides “Iphigenia in Aulis,” the sacrifice of a child to the goddess Artemis is referred to using the word “authentaisin.”

How does this relate to Biblical Equality? The apostle Paul quotes from the Greek Septuagint frequently. He was evidently very familiar with its language. In 1 Timothy 2:12, he prohibits teaching that is connected with “authentein.” “Authentein” is the infinitive verb form of the nouns “authentas” and “authentaisin” found in the Septuagint and in Euripides’ play.

What is Paul talking about?

It’s important to remember that in his letter to Timothy, Paul is prohibiting the false teaching of asceticism. Teachers in Ephesus were forbidding marriage and the eating of certain foods. Paul refers to this teaching as “demonic” (see 1 Timothy 4:1-5). Paul is encouraging Timothy to guard the gospel against something falsely called knowledge—gnosis in Greek (see 1 Timothy 6:20-21).

St. Basil of Ancyra, a priest who served in Asia Minor in the 4th century A.D., reported that the churches of this region (where Ephesus is located) were filled with eunuchs. Many men had castrated themselves, thinking that renouncing “the body and its passions” was necessary to please God. We read about an early instance of this in a 2nd century work entitled, “the Acts of John.” In this account, a young man from Ephesus castrates himself in a fit of remorse over committing adultery. He is rebuked by John (the Lord’s disciple) who tells him it is not the body that leads to sin, but rather temptation arising from the heart. Though Basil wrote in the 4th century, the problem he was attempting to address had started much earlier (see Daniel F. Caner’s, “The Practice and Prohibition of Self-Castration in Early Christianity”).

In addition to pointing out that ascetics in the church of Asia Minor were castrating themselves, Basil points out why they were doing this. He reports that they were following the example of the priests of Cybele. New priests of the goddess Cybele would offer her their genitals in a bloody ritual that took place once each year. The Greek name for this goddess was Artemis (see Philippe Borgeaud’s “Mother of the Gods”).

During the first century, when Paul wrote his letter to Timothy, Roman law viewed depriving a man of his offspring via castration as a form of murder. To practice castration in religious ritual was viewed as sacrificing one’s offspring to the deity (see Lex Cornelia de sicariis et veneficis).

And so, in 1st Timothy 2, when Paul tells the church to live at peace with the Roman authorities (verses 1 & 2), tells men not to be angry (verse 8), and tells women not to teach or “authentein” a man (verse 12), I believe he is prohibiting the false teaching of extreme asceticism that was associated with the ritual castration of men (see “Apostle’s Warning”).

I believe it is also important to recognize that offerings made to Artemis/Cybele were meant to appease the goddess so that she might “save” women in childbearing (see 1 Timothy 2:15). Rather than looking to the goddess, Paul encourages women to seek salvation in Christ, through faith and holiness. Artemis/Cybele mythology also taught that life and purity came from women, while evil came from men, especially from male sexuality. Early ascetic movements in the church that borrowed from this mythology claimed that it was good for Eve to eat from the tree of knowledge (gnosis), and that all life came from the womb of a virgin mother (see the doctrines of the Ophites, who called themselves “Gnostics”).  Paul reminds the Ephesians that a man (Adam) was also a source of life, and that it was wrong for Eve to eat from the forbidden tree (see 1 Timothy 2:13-14).

*I recognize that many attempts have been made to understand the difficult portions of 1st Timothy. My intention is not to dismiss any other evidence-based views, but rather to add information to an important conversation that has a direct impact on how women experience themselves, God and the Christian faith. I hope that the information is helpful.

Idol Worship in the Old Testament and the New: Implications for Biblical Equality

In the Septuagint (Greek Old Testament of the 2nd century B.C.) the author of “The Wisdom of Solomon” describes the practices of the Israelites when they worshiped the gods and goddesses of Canaan. Chief among these deities were Baal, Molech and Asherah. In the Wisdom of Solomon 12 and in 2nd Kings 17, we’re told that worshiping the idols of Canaan involved sexual immorality and the sacrifice of children. In the Septuagint, those who sacrifice their children to false gods are called “authentas.”

In the Hellenistic age, Asherah became known as the goddess Atargatis (Astour, Hellenosemitica, 1967, p. 206).

“Her priesthood was of the Oriental ecstatic type, rumored to perform acts of self mutilation and self-castration, much like the priesthood of Cybele…

The worship of Atargatis spread to other parts of the Mediterranean, mostly brought by Syrian slaves. The Greeks called Her Derketo (an adapted form of ‘Atargatis’), and considered Her the chief Goddess of the Syrians. She had a temple in Ephesus, where the priestesses were so numerous they supposedly gave rise to the Amazon legends…

Atargatis was known by other names in this region of the world, including ‘Cybele’ and ‘Artemis…’

She was the ‘Great Mother and Fertility Goddess,’ and was connected with ‘astrology and divination.’” (http://www.thaliatook.com/OGOD/atargatis.html)

What I’d like to highlight is that child sacrifice, ritual emasculation and divination were hallmarks of the worship of Asherah/Atargatis in the ancient world. I’d also like to highlight the fact that worshipers of the Canaanite gods and goddesses were referred to in the Septuagint as “authentas.”

In the New Testament, the apostle Paul writes a letter to Timothy warning against a form of ascetic Gnosticism in Ephesus. The most prominent form of this type of spirituality in the region during the New Testament era was found in the worship of Artemis of Ephesus, who was still called Cybele by native Anatolians. Historians Diodorus Siculus and Pompeius Trogus report that worshipers of Artemis/Cybele did indeed practice child sacrifice. Cybele worshipers were historically matriarchal, and they traditionally either put male children to death or mutilated their arms and legs so that they could be rendered subservient to the war-like women. In the first century B.C. there is evidence that Cybele’s priesthood still practiced ritual castration. The priests of Artemis in Ephesus were also traditionally eunuchs. Even when Rome legally banned castration, Cybele’s priests continued the practice. The priests of Artemis in Ephesus refrained from castration but practiced celibacy and fasting from various foods. They claimed that their ascetic lifestyle enabled them to receive special knowledge (gnosis) from their goddess. They used this knowledge to tell people’s fortunes for money.  In other words, they practiced divination.

What I’d like to highlight is that child sacrifice, ritual emasculation and divination were hallmarks of the worship of Cybele/Artemis in Asia (the capital of this Roman Province was Ephesus). I’d also like to highlight the fact that in his first letter to Timothy Paul prohibits a practice he calls “authentein.”

Moreover, I hope to highlight that it is not simply the case that the worship of Asherah/Atargatis and Cyble/Artemis were similar. These are all different names assigned to essentially the same goddess.

Historians Polybius (2nd century B.C.) and Diodorus Siculus (1st century B.C.) use the terms “authentes” and “authentas” to refer to those who either perpetrate murder or support violent actions.

In the worship of Asherah/Atargatis and Cybele/Artemis we have evidence of child sacrifice and the violence of ritual castration directed exclusive against men. I would submit, therefore, that the use of “authentas” in the Septuagint and “authentein” in the New Testament are not coincidental. I believe the same word is being used to address violent practices associated with the worship of essentially the same goddess: the Mother of the gods, called Asherah by the Canaanites, Atargatis by the Phoenicians, Cybele by the Anatolians, and Artemis by the Greeks.

I also think it is no coincidence that Paul prohibits “authentein” against “a man,” and that the ritual violence connected with the worship of the mother goddess was directed exclusively and persistently against her male priests.

What are the implications of these findings?

“Authentein” should never have been translated “to exercise authority.” The centuries-old practice of viewing this word as representative of murder or supporting violence seems to apply equally to the Old Testament worship of Asherah and the New Testament worship of Artemis/Cybele. In both Testaments, the worship of idols and all of the violent practices associated with it are clearly and consistently prohibited.

What was Paul saying to Timothy about women and authority? Probably nothing at all.

Document evidence for the relationships between Asherah, Atargatis and Artemis of Asia Minor: